Posts Tagged ‘waffles’

I usually get random baking ideas right before I go to bed, or at about 2:07 am when I wake up because of our extraordinarily loud neighbors and can’t go back to sleep.

Lately I’ve been on this sweet potato kick for some reason. I use it in a vegan cheese sauce recipe quite often. The other day I made sweet potato gnocchi – sucks up A LOT more flour than normal potatoes, just a word of caution. And then of course you have sweet potato fries, which are really good with some toasted coconut.

Well I had a hankerin – I’m from the south, I can say that – for waffles the other day. I actually just wanted to bake something I think as I caught the never-ending cold going around PDX and had been out of commission for over a week. Anyway… Typically I use some old bananas in my waffles, but sometimes you just don’t feel like a naner. So, as usual, right as we’re going to bed my mind starts whirling with ideas, and what could be better than sweet potato waffles? With brandy soaked cranberries of course. And some walnuts. I know, I know… Genius!

Some friendly advice, PAM is your friend here. I was fresh out of non-stick cooking spray. These little buggers did NOT want to come out of the waffle iron. I had to pry them out with a fork, while demolishing them simultaneously. The ones in the picture were the only ones I could salvage. So, if you’re out of PAM, or SUE or BOB or whatever you call it, butter the damn thing. And maybe use some flour (gf) too.

Sweet Potaffles (vegan & gluten-free)

1/4 cup dried cranberries

brandy

1 medium sweet potato (the orange kind, otherwise known as yams)

1/4 cup walnuts

Put the cranberries in a small bowl and pour just enough brandy to cover them. Let them soak for at least 30 minutes.

Peel the sweet potato and chop it into small pieces, the smaller the pieces the quicker it’ll cook. Toss them in a pan, cover with water and boil until soft – about 15 minutes.

Roughly chop the walnuts.

1 & 1/2 cups soy milk (or other dairy-free milk)

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Whisk the milk and vinegar together and set aside to curdle.

1/4 cup white rice flour

3/4 cup almond flour

1/2 cup millet flour

1/4 cup tapioca flour

1/4 cup potato starch

1 T ground flaxseed

1 tsp xanthan gum*

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground ginger

Blend your dry ingredients together.

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup vegan margarine, melted (I used Smart Balance light)

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp maple extract

1/2 tsp molasses

This is where you should start heating up your waffle iron.

The sweet potato should be done by now as well. Drain the water and toss it in a large mixing bowl. Mash it well with a fork or use an immersion blender to puree. I recommend the latter. Add all the wet ingredients, including the milk mixture, and mix it well until thoroughly blended – I used a hand blender. Add in the dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in the walnuts and cranberries, including the brandy.

These were probably the best waffles I’ve made in a very long time. Nice and crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside. My husband gave me this weird look when I told him I was making sweet potato waffles, but he changed his mind after taking a bite. They were quite tasty, and he had no idea they were gluten-free until I told him.

*On the xanthan gum, I just became privy to the fact that some of this stuff is made from whey, so if you’re a strict vegan be sure to check on that. I think you can use guar gum instead, but I’ve never used it so I have no advice there.

I’ve been playing around with some gluten-free flours lately, which doesn’t always end happily ever after for me. Today, however, the flour gods were on my side.

About 6:36 this morning I awoke, laid there for a second, thought to myself, “I should make waffles,” and proceeded to hop out of bed and into the kitchen. What resulted from my early morning breakfast epiphany was this yummy, gluten-free, low fat, blueberry smothered goodness in the form of waffles.

This is basically a gluten-free version of these waffles, but I couldn’t really taste the pumpkin for all the blueberries – which isn’t really a big deal. I only made a half order but to make matters easier I’ll give it to you in full.

In the corner of my kitchen is currently a bomb shelter size stock pile of assorted canned foods. No, I don’t think the apocolypse is about to happen; they were given to me. Given may be the wrong word actually. Somebody was moving and had a years worth of canned food in their pantry that wouldn’t fit in the trailer so now it sits in my kitchen. Well in this vast array of canned items was a can of pumpkin. I like to make banana waffles a lot but sometimes you get tired of bananas so I thought that I should give pumpkin a whirl. Bananas are used a lot in vegan baking as a binding agent since eggs are a big no no. Canned pumpkin is fairly similar in texture to bananas so I thought it might just work. Turns out I was right (of course, ha ha, I’m not really arogant). I wonder what I sound like to people who don’t know me….

Anyway, I actually based my waffles on a recipe in Veganomicon, so I don’t claim that I wholly created these scrumptious waffles, but I did make several changes. Veganomicon is a stupendous cookbook if you’re looking for one by the way; I highly recommend it. Isa and Terry (the authors) also have a website call the Post Punk Kitchen that contains some other various waffle recipes so check it out too.

So here’s how it all went down:

Combine 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar with a 1/8 C of H2O and 7/8 C (just under 1 cup) of soy milk and let curdle for 5 minutes or so. In another bowl mix about half a can of pumpkin (cans are typically 15 oz), 2 T brown sugar, 2 T applesauce, and the milk mixture. Next add the flour (I used 5/8 C of whole wheat and 1/2 C of unbleached AP flour), 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg. Isa says mix with a fork and don’t over mix it. I believe it you over mix baking powder or soda they lose some of their rising ability. If you haven’t done so by now you should probably turn on your waffle iron so it can heat up. Let it get all the way warmed up before plopping these bad boys in there. I also recommend some PAM, or whatever generic spray you use as I don’t have PAM in my kitchen either, as they may stick to the iron. Cook them as directed by your waffle iron, throw some mapley goodness on them, and enjoy!! If you don’t have an iron I’m sure they’d work just fine as pancakers.

This yielded 5 waffles. A full recipe is typically double what I describe here (hence the odd measurements) but there’s only 2 of us so 10 waffles is a bit much.

If you’re feeling a sweet tooth these would likely be superb with chocolate chips in them!!

And I just realized how much of a pain in the ass it might be to see all the ingredients so here’s a list: